A study on developing aviation biofuel for the Tropics: Production process—Experimental and theoretical evaluation of their blends with fossil kerosene

In the present work, the production process of bio-jet paraffins is appropriately proposed according to the conditions of the socioeconomic situations, the current technologies of biofuel production and the available feedstock sources for the tropical countries. The blending process of bio-kerosene which is a mixture of bio-jet paraffins and fossil kerosene is also displayed. The two prototypes of bio-paraffins (Bio-P1 and Bio-JP2), which were manufactured in Indonesia following the proposed production process, are used for making bio-kerosenes in current study. The theoretical and experimental investigations have been carried out to evaluate and identify the critical properties of bio-kerosenes: distillations, freezing point, lower heating value, density, flash point and viscosity to ensure ASTM criteria of jet fuel. The results show it can be blended directly 5% volume of Bio-P1 or 10% volume of Bio-JP2 to commercial Jet A-1 for powering aviation gas turbine engines without redesigning fuel system or fuel supply infrastructure. The use of these bio-paraffins not only reduces CO2 lifecycle but also significantly decreases emissions of sulfur compounds (SOx). With preliminary achievements of this work, it is no doubt about the feasibility of developing aviation alternative fuels according to the proposed production process for the tropical countries.